Now along with property tax, pay for corp’s services too in Thiruvananthapuram

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: LDF led ruling council overrode stern objections raised by BJP and UDF and passed the agenda to introduce service charges along with introduction of new tax regime in the city.

The council which has been putting off the agenda from council meetings owing to dissent from opposition eventually managed to get the agenda passed citing sections from Kerala Municipality Act and saying that councillors objecting service charges would be held liable for financial loss to the city corporation.

Under the new tax system, the property tax for residential buildings is calculated by multiplying plinth area of the building multiplied by 16. In addition, 10% of this tax would be calculated as service charge and tax for a building would be a sum of tax based on plinth area and service charge. As per the old system of tax assessment, 18% of annual rental value of a building is calculated as property tax.

Of the 10% service charge; 4% is for waste management, 3% for water distribution, 2% for street light maintenance and 1% for drainage maintenance. Even in the old system of tax collection; the 18% is divided as 10% common tax and 8% service charge.

Deputy mayor Rakhi Ravikumar said that the agenda on revising property tax was first passed in the council in 2012, but the matter of service charge was put off. She added that even though service charge would be calculated along with property tax,individual complaints based on argument that a particular ward or a house does not avail any of the services being provided by corporation will be considered by corporation and if required will be exempted from paying service charge.

She also pointed out the need to find additional funds for executing centre sponsored schemes and to meet the shortage of funds in terms of entertainment tax with the imposition of GST. Both BJP and UDF councillors termed the agenda anti-people and opposed it until corporation secretary Deepa LS read out sections from municipality act underlining the need to follow government order and municipality act. She said that if councillors object to it she will have to report to the state government. Mayor V K Prasanth had earlier told councillors that they would be held accountable for financial losses and it would invite audit objections.

With the intervention of secretary, mayor managed to nip the demand for vote and LDF also received hints that UDF would back away from voting and would quit the session. The corporation has found a way to pass the agenda on service charge four years after it was first introduced in the council. The service charge would be calculated and collected from households with effect from April 1 2013.